Minnesota's in the Middle

All things Minnesota politics

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Where is the libertarian party?

I know the difficulty of making an impact even in the position of the dominant third party in Minnesota, but the beauty of being a minor party is that you can stand by your principals and be outspoken. The Minnesota Libertarian Party allowed Sue Jeffers to hijack their resources in the last election, but this party should be making noise from time to time, sure they don't have the organization of even the Independence or Green Parties but out in the public they do have a lot of passionate support on the issues. In 1998 they seemed to step aside for Jesse Ventura, and have never came back to challenge for the dominate party status even with less libertarians-like candidates from the Independence Party in recent years. It almost seems as though they have been sucked into the Republican Party as voiceless lost souls, and don't realize the power in the Republican Party considers them a joke.

With the smoking ban and the gutless spending increases that Pawlenty and the Democrats have given us it is clear that those of us that are real fiscal conservatives need a voice, despite the movement away from Jesse Ventura in the Independence Party it is clear that the Independence Party is still the party that can best represent those of us looking for smaller government in Minnesota.

I don't get it?

I understand Pawlenty's and the Republicans oppisition to the gas tax, but as gas prices increase is it not time to base the tax on the price rather then consumption? Offset any increase that creates by lowering the sales tax. Of course we all know how the game works, changing the tax struucture is always a tax increase even if the end result is decreased tax revenues.

Overall it looks like the session was as close to a success as you can expect, but we lost all the good fiscal conservitive in the last few years, and thus we see more politics in where the money goes and less principal. The College tuition aid is out of controll, and all it does is drive up the cost.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Tax or no tax?

Thursday, May 17, 2007

An independent US Senate Candidate?

Minnesota Democrats exposed has this on Peter Agre. I don't know enough to know if he even fits the Independence Party platform, but hey it's always good to have candidates thinking running independent even if there not high profile. Remember low profile doesn't always mean you can't be a good candidate, nobody knew who Tammy Lee was a year ago and although she came up a few weeks short of potentially making a major impact in the end it was clear that she is the kind of candidate that has a real shot if she ever runs for anything again.

I'm the kind of guy that gets very impatiant when it comes to finding out if there is anyone out there that wants to run with the Independence Party so any news in that direction is good news.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Whats the difference?

Tonight our governor could be involved in the first Republican debate, talking tough about his strong convictions and the leadership he will provide. but instead he's hear letting everyone know he has a really large veto pen that he intends to use before he caves into whatever the DFL wants.

Really though the debate should be good as the media hasn't taken over the Republican race the way it has with the Democrats. The big names won't last through the process leaving the race wide open. It's easy to say whoever the Republicans choose will lose in light of the 2006 elections, but if they choose the right kind of candidate and get the momentum Bush and Iraq might not be the #1 issue, and as long as the Republicans protect the states they've won in both 2000 and 2004 there are very few senerios where they lose.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Your 2006 candidates for Governor.

You have the I have a big veto pen, but not enough convictions to not sign DFL legislation candidate in Tim Pawlenty, you have the make sure anyone that supports you finds reasons to hate you candidate in Hatch, and you had Peter Hutchinson. I'm betting more and more Democrats are relizing they wasted there vote, and come the conclusion of the session I'd be willing to bet a lot of Republicans will also relize they wasted there vote. How on earth the Democrats allowed Mike Hatch and then Lori Swanson to gain their nominations I will never know.